News Exercise #137

1. According to the reporter, what is the purpose of the Workers’ Party Congress?
2. Why is it so hard for outside journalists to understand what is happening in North Korea, even in the facilities that they are allowed to visit?
3. What was his, and the VIP’s, opinion of what they had been shown?
4. What questions was the taekwondo practitioner unable to answer?
Update May 9th: The BBC reported that their team had been expelled from North Korea due to their unfavourable reporting.

Answers:
1. According to the reporter, what is the purpose of the Workers’ Party Congress?
To glorify the rule of Kim Jon Eun.
2. Why is it so hard for outside journalists to understand what is happening in North Korea, even in the facilities that they are allowed to visit?
He said that they weren’t allowed to talk to ordinary people. Even if he tried to talk to them, they ran away.
3. What was his, and the VIP’s opinion of what they had been shown?
He said that everything looked like a set-up (fake, made for viewing only), and the VIP, Prince Alfred of Lichtenstein, said that he thought the people in the hospital were not doctors.
4. What questions was the taekwondo practitioner unable to answer?
“How do you feel about us? How do you feel about the outside world? How do you feel about America?”